Mr. Speaker, it is a pleasure to debate this important private member's motion. First, I would like to support the idea of the private member's motion. I read a bit of history not long ago and found that in times past Parliament was taken up essentially with motions and bills brought forward by private members.
Over time, this has eroded to mostly government initiated bills and motions. If the government says go for it, then fine. If the government is against it, it would not bring in the bills or motions. Consequently, the legislative agenda is greatly limited.
I appreciate the concept of private members' motions. I sincerely hope that we will not see in this private member's motion the kind of interference from the government side that we did in the previous one earlier this week. I hope, sincerely, that members of Parliament will be able to assess the merits of this motion on its own and to vote freely, without interference from the government side.
Specifically the question is one of taxation. This topic comes up over and over again in the House. It is a problem, I suppose it would be proper to say, that has seized the attention of Canadians.
I was married 35 years ago. I would like to congratulate my wife for having stayed with me for that long. It is a miracle in itself. A friend of ours said recently: "She deserves a medal", and I would concur with that.
When we were first married in 1961, my salary was a little over $400 a month. My income tax deduction was $35 a month, about 8 per cent. On that salary, I was able to provide for my family. At first we had a rented house. We went from that to purchase a house on a single income.
I was able to provide enough groceries. People can see over the years that I, as the representative sample of our family, have not suffered in the starvation department. We have been able to manage quite well.
We are one family who made the choice that, when our children were young, mother would be a full time mother. She would be the manager of the home. She would be there for the children in the morning when they were off to school as they grew older. She stayed with them, of course, full time before they went to school. She was there when the children came home from school in order to give a solid, loving home base to the children as they were growing up. Consequently, we lived on my income only during those years.
Unfortunately, times have changed during these 35 years. To my view, they have changed to the detriment of the family. For most Canadians over half their income is spent for them by politicians and bureaucrats at the three levels of government. No longer do we have an 8 per cent rate of taxation. We now have a 50 per cent rate of taxation, plus GST. People cannot get away from that. No matter where they turn to purchase anything, there is the GST.
I had to buy a part for my vehicle the other day. I ended up paying $10 in GST. The part was quite expensive. I said to myself, why should I pay a penalty of $10 to some federal program that is wasting my money because I have to repair my vehicle so that it will run.
The motion underlines the fact that we are taxed to death. In particular, as families we are being taxed to death. It is no longer true that families have a choice, as we had, to say that one member will stay at home full time. They cannot live on one income. The reason is very simple. So much of a family's earnings are now taken away from it by the coercion of taxation that the amount that it has left is insufficient to provide for shelter, clothing, food, education and then some of those other things that are valued.
It is wonderful if children, as they are growing up, can learn more than what is taught just in the home and in the school. I benefited from piano lessons. My parents sacrificed so that I could learn to play the piano. I love playing O Canada when we go out to some of the meetings in my constituency. I always say: "Make sure there is a piano there so that I can play it". My parents sacrificed for that. More and more families cannot do that.
I spoke recently with parents who said they have no choice but for both of them to work. Otherwise they could not afford to have shelter, clothing and food. They are hard pressed to provide some of those other things which are so valuable in the development and the growth of children.
This motion says there should be a tax credit for those who choose this particular lifestyle. In principle, I agree with it. The principle is that we want to reduce the tax load on families so that they can, with their own earnings, provide the care for their families. That is a commendable goal. In principle, I am in favour of what this bill says.
At the same time I seriously ask the question of whether this is the best way to go. First, governments at all levels should sharply reduce their demands for money to be shipped to Ottawa by the truckload, trainload or however it is brought here. The federal government over spends. There is no doubt about it. Too large a proportion of government expenditures are going to interest.
It is absolutely mandatory that the government reduce not only its annual borrowing so that the debt goes up more slowly, it is far beyond the time already when it should have reduced the deficit to zero. Government should be living within its means, including the payment of interest on the present debt. Members should start looking at reducing the debt which would reduce the amount of interest so that Canadians can be given a tax break. Consequently those Canadians would have more of their own money to spend as they see fit. If parents value the ability to choose that one of them stays home, then they should be able to afford that.
It is true that in the present system the greatest amount of future planning, retirement planning and family budgeting has to do with meeting the tax budget and the tax demands. I attended a seminar some time ago on retirement planning. I was appalled when I realized that about 10 or 15 per cent of the time was spent making wise investment decisions and things like that and about 85 per cent was used on how to either postpone or avoid paying taxes. It points out the fact that taxes are too high.
This bill says let us give a tax credit to those families in which there is only one wage earner. Let us make it easier for families to make that choice. Not long ago there was a poll taken and it showed that fully two-thirds of parents of young children said if they really had the choice they would choose for one or the other of them to stay home full time with the children. They feel they do not have the choice and inasmuch as this motion is a step in the right direction, it would be wise of us to support it.